Last week on The Flash we got a very brief introduction to Cicada II — Grace Gibbons all grown up. She’d come back from the future and on this week’s episode, Time Bomb, we saw that this version of Cicada was even more ruthless and deadly than her uncle Orlin Dwyer.
Also, she’s the very first female big bad The Flash has had in its five seasons on the air.
The Actress Behind Grown-Up Grace
The adult version of Grace is played by Sarah Carter. Carter is a Canadian actor with an extensive resume from working in movies and especially TV for the last 20 years.
She’s been a series regular as Madeleine Poe on the 2006 James Woods series Shark. Genre fans may recognize her for her five-season stint as Maggie on the 2011 alien invasion series Falling Skies.
She’s also had a string of guest-starring and recurring roles in shows like Smallville, Dirty Sexy Money, Entourage, and Hawaii Five-O.
On the film side, Carter has also appeared in 2012’s The Vow opposite Rachel McAdams and 2006’s DOA: Dead or Alive.
She has a degree from Ryerson University in Toronto where she received classical training in theater acting. In high school, Carter was already accomplished. She was in the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and was also named one of the world’s top three public speakers.
Sarah Carter on Playing Cicada
On being the first female villain on The Flash, Carter said, “I feel privileged to be the first woman villain badass. It’s definitely important to have the most ‘power’ on the show, to be the one that is the biggest threat to The Flash, and have the faceoff be a woman versus man.”
She also teased future conflict between Cicada and Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost, explaining, “[Caitlin] is one of the stronger female characters that’s fully-rounded on the show because she does have the dark side that she taps into and because she was untouchable by Orlin. That makes her a focus for my character, as well. I see her as the biggest threat. That also makes it interesting to have these two powerful women as equals. I think we’re gonna see some play on that in the future.”
The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.